Current interest in the anticancer agent harringtonine has generated a demand for the substance which has outstripped the current supply. A number of considerations suggest that the best solution to the shortage is the development of a total synthesis of harringtonine via its companion alkaloid cephalotaxine. Harringtonine has not been synthesized. The objective of the present project is to complete current efforts directed toward the total synthesis of both harringtonine and cephalotaxine. In addition appropriate modification of the synthetic scheme will allow for the synthesis of analogs whose preparation and testing is suggested by the remarkable activity of harringtonine.